The holidays are quickly approaching and this means something different depending on your swimmer’s current involvement. Whether your athlete is currently training in a winter recreational league or a year-round “club” team or whether they are in “off season” and awaiting the spring, they are still working towards goals. Goals can range in variety; maybe your swimmer wants to achieve certain time … [Read more...]
Parents
The High School Swim Team Experience
Swimming is certainly one of the best youth sports on the market. With its low-impact cardio and a muscular component (a full body workout!), swimming helps youngsters tackle goal-setting, introduces the idea of “teamwork” both in practice and competition settings, and provides a social outlet. Further, once our young athletes reach the middle/high school age, opportunities for swim team … [Read more...]
SwimTopia Makes Fundraising Easier Than Ever
Fundraising has long been central to the success of swim team culture. Whether involved in high school, club, or summer rec swimming, swim parents are very familiar with the concept of fundraising. In fact, ensuring an influx of cash is critical to the operations of swim teams across the country. With this in mind, SwimTopia offers a couple of features to make fundraising as easy and navigable as … [Read more...]
SwimTopia Presents: SWIMS 3.0 Integration
September marks the release of USA Swimming’s SWIMS 3.0. This is a newly updated swimmer database/swimmer registration portal for members of USA Swimming clubs. The release allows athletes, parents of athletes, and non-athletes (e.g. volunteers) to register for USA Swimming online at the USA Swimming website while syncing their member details to their team management software (like … [Read more...]
Announcing New Competition Category Terminology
This summer, to address the continually evolving awareness of gender identity in sport, SwimTopia is updating the terminology used in our products from “Gender” to “Competition Category.” This change more clearly reflects the intended use of “Male” and “Female” labels in our products: for the purposes of competitive classification and not as an indication of an individual’s gender … [Read more...]
Summer Swim to Year-round Club: Picking your Perfect Competitive Team
Though still brutally hot (depending on where you are in the country), peak summer swim season is finally passing. This might also mean assessing what’s next for your young swimmer. In our previous blog, SwimTopia spoke about the immense benefits of year-round competitive (a.k.a. club) swim teams. Not only will your athlete continue developing strong friendships in club swim, they will also … [Read more...]
From Summer Swimmer to Year-round Athlete
We are quickly reaching, if not the end of the season for many leagues, at least the mid-way point (where does the time go??). It’s been a whirlwind of cheers and chants, snacks and backpacks, chlorine and cozy towels. And maybe, just maybe, your young athlete has caught the ‘swimming bug.’ Perhaps, they’re not quite ready to hang up their swimsuit for the year. “What’s next??” they might be … [Read more...]
SwimTopia Summer Series: Key Player Parent Volunteers
Summer season 2022 is under way and we’re all embracing the glorious chaos! If you are a parent volunteer, you’re already in the thick of the action: arriving early at meets (a.k.a. The Crack of Dawn) for setup, darting here and there to gather kiddos for the ready bench, scrutinizing every race as a stroke judge, marking event/heat/lane grids on athletes’ arms. It’s a lot. If you are what we … [Read more...]
SwimTopia’s Summer Series: Dealing with DQs
The first meet of the season is quickly approaching (or already behind you in some states!)! Both new and returning swim parents often have many questions pre-season, several of which may involve “Disqualifications” (a.k.a. DQs). Returning parents might have encountered DQs in seasons past and new parents may be wondering what this “scary” acronym could possibly signify. Never fear! … [Read more...]
Mobile App Madness- SwimTopia’s Live Event/Heat Indicator
Summer is upon us and, if you’re a parent, we suspect you’re hustling to get everything organized for the swim season: stocking up on snacks, acquiring team attire, planning schedules, etc. It’s an exciting time and, perhaps, you’re most looking forward to the dynamic swim meet scene: team cheers, sharpie body art, and the almost addictive sense of chaos. It’s all part of the experience. However, … [Read more...]